My name is Stephanie
Greenwood, Research Analyst at Good Jobs New York, a joint project of the Fiscal
Policy Institute with offices in Albany and New York City and Good Jobs First,
based in Washington, DC. Good Jobs New York promotes accountability to taxpayers
in the use of economic development subsidies. Our website (www.goodjobsny.org)
contains the only publicly available database of the city’s largest corporate
retention deals. In addition, after the attacks of 9/11, we launched program
called Reconstruction Watch to help grassroots groups better understand the many
incentives that were developed for the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan.

Good Jobs New York urges the Liberty Development
Corporation to ensure that the Liberty Bonds proposed for the Downtown Hotel –
and all future LDC projects – encourage the development of good jobs and
affordable housing. These two elements are essential to fulfilling the vision of
rebuilding Lower Manhattan as a diverse, vibrant, 24/7 community. We believe the
Downtown Hotel project can and should help to promote these important public
goods in order to justify the use of 9/11 subsidies in its development.

Good Jobs:

Over 300,000 New Yorkers are unemployed right now. The
economic recovery the rest of the country has begun to experience has been slow
to arrive in New York City. Joblessness persists as a major obstacle to the
city’s economic recovery. The Downtown Hotel Project creates an opportunity to
put some of these people back to work. To make the most of this opportunity, the
jobs generated by the project must be good jobs, i.e. jobs that pay liveable
wages, and include health benefits, and opportunities for job training and
upward mobility. Priority access to these jobs should be given to people
unemployed as a result of the economic aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, as well as
to local residents, low-income New Yorkers, women and people of color.

Affordable Housing:

The diversity and vibrancy that exists downtown today is
based in large part on the amazing range of people that live and work there. But
increasingly, this range is narrowing as people with low and moderate incomes
cannot afford to rent or buy apartments in their neighborhoods, or face eviction
due to sudden rent increases.

Maintaining and adding to a supply of mixed-income housing
is vital to the economic, social, and cultural health of the area. The city is
already charging a 3% origination fee on Liberty Bonds used to build housing
downtown that will subsidize affordable housing elsewhere in the city. By
including a small origination fee on commercial Liberty Bonds projects such as
the Downtown Hotel project, the LDC could generate a much-needed fund to
subsidize mixed-income housing in Lower Manhattan.

By integrating and linking good jobs and affordable housing
into this and other Liberty Bond projects, the LDC will greatly augment the
positive impact on ordinary New Yorkers of each dollar spent in reconstructing
Lower Manhattan. The Federal resources allocated to New York in the aftermath of
the 9/11 attacks give us an opportunity to set a high standard for inclusive
economic development. We should make the most of it.